qq** What does it mean?

[robdunfey]

Hi,

What does qq* do?

For example,

my $usage = qq*
Usage: $0 [filename] [poly|line|point] [id] > outfile.svg
*;

$ARGV[2] or die "Error: No layout type specified\nTypes available: id\n$usage\n";

I dont understand how this works, could somebody help me?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[usige]

The qq operator is the generlized double-quote operator. Basically it is like using a double qouted string since it will do variable interpolation, but it also handles character escaping for you.

In your case the * is the pattern delimiter. You chould change the code to be a little more readable by doing something like:

my $usage = qq{
Usage: $0 [filename] [poly|line|point] [id] > outfile.svg
};

Hope that helps.